As I read, watch TV and make other observations I become more and more concerned for our country. I grew up in a time when people worked and supported themselves and about the only time you interacted with the government was at tax time. And strange as it may be, in a time where the government only did those things provided for in the Constitution generally. I really do not know how and why it changed but I think it started about the time prayer was taken out of schools. That seems to be when we became more concerned about offending the few than supporting the majority. Now if you voice an opinion that offends anyone you must apologize and shrink from view. We must all be “Politically Correct”. In a previous blog I said that we have sold our education system to the government and other sources of money because someone was sold a bill of goods and it’s too much trouble to get involved. We are now a society where no one is responsible for themselves; we rely on government for support and cling to or praise any one that makes their dreams of the perfect life come true. This is where it has gotten us.

1. The United States owes 16.8 trillion dollars in debt and Obama proposed a budget with more spending than revenue. In that same budget, Obama wants to limit the amount of money a person could accumulate in all tax-advantaged retirement plans combined – including regular and Roth individual retirement accounts, 401(k) and defined benefit plans – to about $3 million. He wants to decide how much money you can have when his net worth is greater than $3 million and his retirement pay excludes him from the requirement he wants to impose on others.

2. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that almost 110 million Americans received some form of means-tested welfare in 2011, excluding Medicare and Social Security, referring to food stamps, public housing, child care, energy assistance, direct cash aid, etc. For instance, 47 million Americans currently receive food stamps, and USDA has engaged in an aggressive outreach campaign to boost enrollment even further.

According to the Census’s American Community Survey, the number of households with incomes below the poverty line in 2011 was 16,807,795 the Senate Budget Committee notes. The Budget Committee continues with "If you divide total federal and state spending by the number of households with incomes below the poverty line, the average spending per household in poverty was $61,194 in 2011.”

3. The Labor Participation Rate at 64.2%, lowest since 1984. LPR is all persons 16 years of age and up that are working, looking for work, underemployed or stopped looking for work. Less people are working now than in any time in the last twenty five years.

4. A group of 23 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder demanding existing gun laws be enforced before additional limitations are passed.

The letter points out that of the 76,142 gun permit requests that were denied following background checks by federally-licensed firearms dealers, only 4,732 were referred for prosecution. Of that total, only 62 prosecutions resulted.

5. Twenty F-16 fighter jets are(Jan. 2013), bound for Egypt as part of a foreign aid package critics say should have been scrapped when the nation elected a president who has called President Obama a liar and urged that hatred of Jews be instilled in children.

A source who works on the naval air base in Fort Worth, Texas, confirmed the departure of the state-of-the-art fighter planes to FoxNews.com. Twenty F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks are to be given to the Egyptian government before the end of the year under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010 with then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime U.S. ally.

Critics, including several in Congress, say it doesn't make sense to follow through with the package, given that new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, elected last summer, has given decidedly mixed signals about relations with the U.S. While he has toned down his rhetoric since his election, in 2010 - the same year the aid package was struck - Morsi attacked Obama for supporting Israel.

“One American president after another — and most recently, that Obama — talks about American guarantees for the safety of the Zionists in Palestine," Morsi, then a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Egyptian television in reaction to Obama's 2009 speech in Cairo. "[Obama] was very clear when he uttered his empty words on the land of Egypt. He uttered many lies, of which he couldn’t have fulfilled a single word, even if he were sincere — which he is not.”

In the comments translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Morsi went on to urge that children be taught to hate Jews. “Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them," he said. "They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.”

This foreign aid deal signed in 2010 by the Obama administration will cost taxpayers $213 million dollars.

6. A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Obama’s health care law stunned administration officials by saying openly he thinks it’s headed for a “train wreck.” Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, delivered his tough-love assessment of efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act during a budget hearing that featured Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

From the outset, the senator’s terse and pointed questions made it clear that he did not think her agency had done enough to implement key pillars of the law by 2014. He also said he is “very concerned” by the lack of information among small business and accountants who are “throwing their hands” up over the law. “I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Mr. Baucus said Wednesday. “You and I have discussed this many times, and I don’t see any results yet.”

His comments turned heads because Republicans are typically the ones who openly criticize Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement. Mr. Baucus has served in the Senate since 1978 but faces a tenuous battle for re-election in 2014.

7. What started out as an effort by President Reagan to help poor people in rural areas have a phone in cases of emergency has mushroomed into what critics suspect is a new welfare program. "The cost has gone from $143 million a few years ago to $2.2 billion today," Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said, noting that today's cost is 15 times what it was.

Only low-income people on welfare and food stamps legally qualify. Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill says, "I got solicitation for a free phone at my apartment, which is certainly not a building where you're going to have people who are qualified for free phones. ... There is clearly money being wasted here."

Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter adds, "The FCC, itself, said in a recent year there were 270,000 beneficiaries that had more than one of these subsidized cellphones. That's completely against the law right there." The FCC told lawmakers the top five companies can't verify the eligibility of 41 percent of those who get phones, or as many as 110,700 phones may be illegal.

"I hear from law enforcement that these phones are often found at crime scenes and are used in drug deals," Republican Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas said. "Why? It's because you can't trace them."

Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Public Knowledge says "It's how we find jobs; it's how we now participate in all the activities in the economy". If this were true, Labor Participation Rate of 64.2% would not be the lowest since 1984. But Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill says those looking for work could simply check out a phone from the unemployment office. With so much abuse in the current program, she is now concerned about some new proposals: "What's really worrisome to me is now the FCC wants to expand to this program into broadband. That's a very bad idea, I think." She says such a waste of money makes taxpayers think government just isn't paying attention. (Do you really think the government may over look the way money is spent, novel idea?) And she says the current program is so far out of control, we should simply scrap it and start over, not expand it.

This program is funded for by a small tax on all phone bills, the program has exploded -- with companies advertising free phones and offering 250 minutes. If the FCC gets its way, internet will be added and probably be funded for by a small tax on everyone else’s internet bill.

8. Now we have bombings at the Boston Marathon and we are told that we will get persons responsible and bring them to trial and that seems to be happening. But, what are all the facts behind it, who helped, who paid for it, who supported the brothers, who paid for the trips to Russia, how closely is it connected to al Qaeda and its affiliates, I could go on. What comes to mind is the attack on Benghazi, we still know very little even though there are about thirty survivors in the hospital or somewhere. I don’t think the end knowledge will be much different for Boston than Benghazi.

The reports of a terror plot in Canada that planned to blow up a train bridge that often carryings Americans was directly linked to al Qaeda by Canadian Officials. The joint investigation was conducted by Canadian and American agencies. Since Obama has repeatedly said that al Qaeda “is on the run” how will the government side step that.

What will the future be for your children and grandchildren if these ideas and conditions continue?

Did you know a survey of Boston residents found that 71% now want a gun in the home for self defense? This from the center of 'gun hating' Massachusetts! Strange how quick people cast off their principles when tragedy strikes.

I respect and share your concern for our country. Here's my thoughts on a few of your points.

1. In a slump in the economy government spending should go up if you are a fan of Reaganite Keynesian economics. This is sound mainstream economics and it is not happening now.

If you are a fan of the austerity camp whose ideas are based upon bad economic data, or of you just want to shrink the government regardless of the effect on the economy, then you cut government spending during a recession. This is what is happening now.

Yes, it is appropriate to deal with the debt, but the economically optimal way for dealing with is dependent upon the business cycle (think sinwave). At the bottom of the wave you spend, at the top you save and pay debt. Politically this is always tough, although President Clinton did do a pretty good job of creating a trillion dollar surplus during the last big upswing of the economy.

2. I have received means-tested aid from the government: education loans that I have to pay back.If you add up people in college (20 million) and people on social security (62 million) then you get a large portion of people receiving government aid (88 of 110 million). I would be happy to get rid of social security since I see no possible way of getting it as a young person, but for some reason older people want me to pay social security. Those food stamps numbers sure are scary though.

3. Yep, that stinks. Technology is replacing jobs quickly and labor rates are cheaper in Asia. Education is one way to keep up, but it's absurdly expensive. I know many capable people who would love to start businesses but are not in a position to take that risk due to education loans that allowed them to learn how to start such businesses in the first place. The rates on loans just keep going up year after year.

4. Enforcement of existing gun laws would be great. Unfortunately, NRA-supported Congressmen have passed riders limiting the enforcement ability of the Department of Justice and Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco to prosecute gun crimes. This happens to other agencies as well; if a lobbying group does not like the EPA regulating some particular pollutant, then they talk to Congressmen who will threaten (or actually) defund the agency to carry out specific regulation & enforcement activities. A major step in gun control would be simply to remove the restrictions imposed upon the agencies responsible for enforcement and let them do their jobs. I would bet this here keyboard that those 23 politicians know this and are just putting on a political show to rile people up.

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